A bill offering grants to flood-affected farmers was introduced Thursday with the support of more than half of the S.C. House of Representatives.
The S.C. Farm Aid bill supplements “inadequate” crop insurance payments to cash-strapped farmers who lost more than $375 million from the October flood.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian White, R-Anderson, is the bill’s prime sponsor.
“We must stand up for our farmers to prevent a pillar of the South Carolina economy from collapsing,” White said in December.
To be eligible for a grant, farms would have to be Farm Service Agency-verified; have sustained at least a 40 percent total crop loss in a county declared a disaster by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and farmers would have to sign an affidavit accurately stating their losses.
Grants would be equal to 20 percent of the total crop loss, a $100,000 maximum. Additional budget dollars could cover the presently unknown cost of the program, one House aide said.
A seven-member board, appointed by the Legislature, would administer the program along with Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers.
Source - postandcourier.com
